The Inverse Leidenfrost Effect

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Droplets levitate on a bath of liquid nitrogen and are spontaneously self-propelled. Thanks Audible! Start a 30-day trial and your first audiobook is free. Go to or text VERITASIUM to 500500.

Special thanks to Dr. Anaïs Gauthier
Physics of Fluids:

Self-propulsion of inverse Leidenfrost drops on a cryogenic bath
Anaïs Gauthier, Christian Diddens, Rémi Proville, Detlef Lohse, and Devaraj van der Meer
PNAS January 22, 2019 116 (4) 1174-1179; published ahead of print January 22, 2019


For a detailed description of the setup:


And self-propulsion is also seen:

Other recent (hot) Leidenfrost experiments that might be interesting:
* Leidenfrost wheels:
* Leidenfrost maze:
* Leidenfrost explosions:

Special thanks to Patreon supporters:
Donal Botkin, James M Nicholson, Michael Krugman, Nathan Hansen, Ron Neal, Stan Presolski, Terrance Shepherd

Thanks to Prof. Kevin McKeegan at UCLA for the liquid nitrogen

Filming by Raquel Nuno

Additional animations by Alan Chamberlain